WS1063: Our Real Estate Start-Up Hustle with Angel Williams

EPISODE 1063

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:01:06] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell. 

[INTERVIEW]

[0:01:01.6] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Angel Williams, Angel has been involved in real estate investing her whole life but began her personal real estate investing journey in 2003. She is a co-founder of The Academy Presents, and a managing partner of Lorren Capital, LLC. Angel has experience in single-family home rentals, small multi-family home rentals and passive investing in multi-family syndication deals. I’ve known Angel for a few years now, her husband, Jason, and they have been hustling, they are providing so much free educational content to people through The Academy Presents, I encourage to look at … I think they’re fixed into their fourth one and bringing on experts and interviewing them and putting out amazing content that’s teaching people lots of things, but they have been so committed, and I remember at the time in the beginning, especially when we’re still hustling every day, now this is the beginning a few years are so much more difficult, and they’ve been in real estate for a good while, but they’ve really been pushing forward very hard and are doing some big stuff, but we talk about that path, even some details about the communication with her and her husband, some things, just in that time of just great hustle, right, lots of hustle and it’s hard to even breath sometimes in the very beginning, but then getting up to their first project, their first deal, and just that timeline a little bit, but in just committing to make it happen, and taking some big steps and strides to grow their business grow their brand, and just their online presence.

[0:01:56.2] WS: So people know who they are. They’re doing a great job. I hope you enjoy the show. Angel, welcome to the show. I have known you for a couple of years, maybe three years now, I’m not even sure, I know, I remember us meeting at the Best Ever conference a few years ago, and it’s been incredible to see what you’ve accomplished, but you all have been hustling like nobody’s business and I see you everywhere, you all are holding events, your meet-ups, I understand. You’ve been hustling so much and most people do not get to see that part of the start-up process of getting into this business, so I’m looking forward to really bringing some reality right to the listener, but just get to know you better as well in the listener is get to know you better even hear about your great events where you’re interviewing some of the amazing people in this business and bringing value to tons of people as well, but a little before that, obviously tell us who you are, just ’cause the listeners aren’t gonna… Now you are… And let’s get into it.

[0:02:48.5] AW: I am Angel Williams, my husband and I co-founded The Academy Presents Real Estate Investing Rocks, that’s where we have basically all of our educational information, it’s our educational platform, and then we have Lauren Capital, which is our investing arm, and so we started investing very early, like 2003, we came from residential, so we had all the single-family homes, and now we’ve moved into the commercial multifamily space, and we just trying to make connections and meet people and do as much as we can as fast as we can.

[0:03:19.5] WS: Yeah, I know you all have been investing a lot, you’ve done passive investing, you’ve on single family and multifamily and different things, but as far as your syndication journey, why syndication and was back up to when you started thinking more towards syndication versus maybe single family or whatever else you could have done in real estate.

[0:03:39.0] AW: Jason, I both grew up in families investing in real estate, so that was a very natural progression for us, and then once we started having children, our second child, our son was diagnosed with a really Regenetic condition when he was nineteen months old, and after a couple of years, we were like, Man, this is expensive, so we started looking for ways to really speed up the investing vehicle, and single-family homes are super slow, it’s a good method for lots of people, but for us, it turned out to be super slow, and what we found was with multifamily, the scale happens so much faster, and we decided that we need to be able to really scale up because we want to have a foundation, and we wanna create a foundation for the children that have what Anton has and the families that support those children, and to be able to do something that big, we’re gonna have to have some serious legacy wealth landing behind it, so that was what really pushed us into the commercial multifamily space.

[0:04:39.4] WS: Awesome, so you had a mission. I love it. I can connect to that, like you have something that’s bigger than just building wealth or buying a new house or car or things like that, and that I’ve just found personally having so often that people connect to that… Right, there’s something that’s bigger than just this monetary goal that will happen as well, which is amazing, but when you can just be connected to something else that’s bigger, there’s a different connection that’s made to with investors and with other people in the industry. So what are some of the things though that you did to get to where you’re at now, to build the network you have now, talk about your meet-up, talk about The Academy Presents, ’cause I want the listener to obviously know about those things, but I want them to understand the hustle that’s been behind that, that’s no easy feat to make all those things happen…

[0:05:24.9] AW: The thing was deciding that we were gonna do it and committing to doing it, I was actually sitting in my doctor’s office when Dane Hamer called me and I was like, what, he must have… But dials didn’t answer, and then he calls right back and I’m like, what… I answered it on the second one, and I was like, Hey, yeah, we talked this afternoon, we had a meeting scheduled because I knew at that point that I was wanting to do something like a one-day event, maybe a couple of hour webinar, and so I asked him, How do you do a one or two-day event, and we talked a little bit about… And then I’m like grabbing paper and I’m scribbling down notes, and the infamous question that set me down this road, ’cause I was like, So what’s the different one day, a two day and a three-day event, and Dan was like, It’s just coordinating people. And I was naive enough to believe it, it is not just coordinating people, that first one was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life up to that point, but now that we’re about to have number four, it’s not the same, it’s amazing how fast your comfort zone catches up, and I’m glad that I didn’t know that it was more than just coordinating people, and I’m glad that he didn’t let on that it was more than coordinating people, because I might not have done it, and that was really what started us on…

[0:06:44.2] AW: Getting out there and doing things where people could see us…

[0:06:48.2] WS: Ignorance is bliss. And more ways than one, right?

[0:06:50.7] AW: Oh my gosh, and then while we’re doing the summit, I said, You know what, I’m gonna… Hartington webinars, every week, I’m gonna do something. And that was how the podcast started, and I actually missed it by one day, I said within the month after the first summit I was gonna start doing the webinars, and I missed it by one day, we started my first instead of April 30th. And we’ve been doing it ever since. There’s been a few weeks that I’ve lagged off a little bit because we’ve got a super huge cue and our production team, I don’t know, say they can’t handle everything we’re putting out, but we just pay them per month, and so they maneuver through what needs, like prioritizing and so the podcast doesn’t always get first billing, but that’s okay, ’cause it’s still out there, and we’re still putting info out there. So the podcast come out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we have a virtual meet-up every Monday at New Eastern, and then we do the summits twice a year, and I go to as many meetups and virtual meet-ups as I can. Because that’s my thing, I love it.

[0:07:45.8] AW: And we decided Longo Jason, I did that. The relationship thing is for me, that’s my part, whether it’s getting contractors, finding vendors, setting up schedules, going to meet-ups, meeting people, getting the investors, however it works even with the brokers, the relationship, that part is for me, and so I can establish the relationships and then pull on the other members of our team through intros and hand-off, but by knowing that that’s my lane and knowing that Jason is all the numbers, it makes things pretty easy when we need to find other people to help us.

[0:08:17.5] WS: No, that’s awesome. Knowing where you shine. What energizes? And no doubt. People energize, Angel. That’s incredible. But tell me, or both of you all doing this full-time, are you used to working full-time?

[0:08:30.0] AW: I teach Econ at the college level for a couple of different institutions, like one or two classes a semester, and then Jason is still working, is to be too, but the company is moving, and so he will be transitioning into a consulting role because he’s not gonna change locations with them.

[0:08:47.5] WS: Okay, well, a reason I ask is like… And it just brings more reality to the listener, I mean, you all are doing all these things to increase your network, to learn this business, to meet everybody in the business, all these things, but you’re best to… Working outside of this as well. So a family… And I was there, I just can completely relate just to the madness. Right, I mean… Yeah, it’s the chaos.

[0:09:08.1] AW: Yeah, it’s madness. It’s crazy.

[0:09:09.7] WS: Yeah, completely relate. Tell me a couple of tips to maintaining sanity and communication and your family, just in the middle of that right now, I was there, I’ve talked about uh out many times, but it’s great to hear somebody else’s perspective as well.

[0:09:23.9] AW: So we have nannies. I say nannies because Anson is tough, and so we do some rotation because we don’t want anyone to get burned out, so we rotate some ladies in and out to work with our children, and I have somebody that comes and cleans the house every couple of weeks, and I’m not embarrassed by that. It’s just that I know that a lot of people feel like when you as a mom or you as a woman reach out and get that kind of help, that you’re failing in your role, but I don’t see it as a failure at all, I see it as a way for me to make sure that my kids are taken care of. Well, when I have other things that need to take my attention and then I can be with them and be fully with them, because I’m not also trying to clean the house or catch up on meals that weren’t made or do things in catch-up mode instead of just being with them.

[0:10:13.6] WS: That’s incredible. And it’s same way, you’re on a business almost… Right, I don’t wanna think I wanna say let kids that way, but at least like managing the house or cleaning, right. Like what’s the highest misuse of your time here? Of course, you wanna spend time your kids, but the cleaning portion, why not farm that out to somebody, if you can afford to do that, so you can spend that time either with the kids or doing a high value task, like speaking to an investor or running your meet up or whatever. Right, there’s so many better uses of that time, so what about just even communication with you and Jason, How do you all manage… Is there any kind of routine or technique you all found to stay in just in communication is all… This is happening on a daily, weekly basis.

[0:10:57.6] AW: So I don’t know if I can really say this, but on the media, Jason turns it on and he’s there every Monday, he’s not on screen and he can’t talk, but I know he’s there, so he’s supporting me in that meet up each and every Monday from work. He’s not actively participating and he’s doing his job, but it just means a whole lot to me to know that he’s there, and so that’s one thing he does, and then there’s other things like when I have to go somewhere, he doesn’t even question it, he’s just like, Okay, you go take care of that. Because that’s what you need to be doing right now. And even with our team, when I was like, Hey, I can move recordings from Tuesday ,Wednesday, Thursday, I had to do anything by Monday, I can’t do anything about Friday, but I’ve got those three days and the members of our team reach back to me like Angel, if you can’t move stuff, don’t worry about it, because when it comes time to cap rate, you’re gonna have your hands full, so even then, you recognize that my role is much better suited to other things, and so they also wanna see me utilize that best use of my time as well.

[0:12:02.3] WS: Awesome. No, that’s neat. There’s ways that my wife and it would say connected through all just the madness it can relate to if I’m just like, Whatever you need to do, ’cause that’s the way we were. It’s like I had to travel a lot and still do, and just that communication and the understanding while you’re starting a business between spouses, man, you both have to be on the same page.

[0:12:22.0] AW: And now you have to be… You do have to be.

[0:12:23.9] WS: It’s gonna be difficult either way, but man, if you’re not, I just can’t imagine being able to do it or make it happen, tell me about the timeline to getting to that first deal, you all started… Okay, we’re gonna jump into syndication, you started to meet up the academy present, you are doing all these big things, and tell me about the timeline to the first two…

[0:12:41.6] AW: Alright, so we got into multi-family, I’d say probably about three years ago, and I really love the passive side. It is beautiful. It is mailbox money. You do nothing for it. It was gorgeous. That is all I ever wanted to do. And then I also had the enemy presents with the Real Estate Investing Rocks, and so I was being fulfilled and I haven’t been filled the whole time because as a teacher, I love sharing information. And so Jason started his company, he started a second to the eyes, which is underwriting and underwriting review, but he wasn’t seeing the same level of fulfillment as I wasn’t… I didn’t recognize it, and that was on me, and so once I recognized it, it was that he wanted to be moving active side, and so I really came to that realization probably about four or six months ago, and I knew he was trying to go active side and so I looked at all of the relationships that we have been building and I started kind of maneuvering a little bit to make sure we were getting to know more of the right people, and so the deal that we were awarded was probably our first real LOI deal in commercial multifamily.

[0:13:47.0] AW: I put in on a commercial multi-family, we put in a couple before that, but one of them, it was a mom and pop, and I didn’t understand what an LOI really was, so I don’t really count that one, but it was making sure that we had all those relationships in place, we met some brokers, there was a broker that likes to offer or what we like to offer it, so one weekend we all went out off reading together, and so that was a deeper connection with that broker than just meeting at a meetup or at an event and shaking hands and trading cards, and so that’s where I feel like I shine is getting that connection started, and then he and Jason were able to go crazy with offering information where I don’t really know that much. I go, I like to go, I like to get in the mud, but I don’t understand what different pieces of vehicles do for this, that and the other, and it was neat to watch Jason really shine with what He knows with offering… To be able to connect with the broker on a deeper level there too, so we were actually able to establish a friendship with the broker as opposed to just a business relationship.

[0:14:50.1] WS: Nice. It’s just awesome. And getting to the deals to so many people, including myself, like you were hustling for so long and there’s times you’re like me, is this really gonna work? Right?

[0:15:00.6] AW: Is it ever gonna pay off, right.

[0:15:02.5] WS: How long are we gonna continue in this… Amongst other people probably in your life questioning you, right. Why are you doing this? Right, I mean, I heard that, I’m sure you’ve heard that. And people that really care about you too. Right, they can understand why you’re putting all this time in, and so tell me, what do you see for your team, what’s the next pattern of growth or scaling for you all, or is it finding the next deal or team members? What is that?

0:15:28.1 AW: It was kind of a while, so we’re in due diligence and we wanted to go into the local brewery here, and there was these people sitting at the bar that I wanted to get to know, because I knew that they were doing a lot of stuff in opportunity sounds and these other two guys were talking to them, and they didn’t have a place to sit, I’m like, Hey, we all should just sit together, and it turned out that one of them is a realtor here in town, so we get to talking and he knew of a lady that… It’s basically a tire landlord, she’s got a 50 unit, and I was like, Well, can you wait til we close on this one because I’m a little overwhelmed right now was… It was like, it just happened, I was like, been doing boom, and it’s really funny how the universe collides and put all of that stuff together, you

[0:16:09.2] WS: Know, that is interesting. And just the willingness to say, Hey, come over and sit with us and kind of putting yourself out there a little bit… Well.

[0:16:15.5] AW: That’s what I like to do.

[0:16:17.0] WS: Yeah, that’s awesome. Like I said, that’s why energizes you, that’s why you’re the relationship person. Right, that’s incredible. And there’s a deal, a potential deal out of that willingness to put yourself out there. So tell me… Change here is a little bit of angel. Tell me a couple of things that you’ve done to recently improve your business that we could apply an hours.

[0:16:35.8] AW: Just being real about some of the disappointments of things, the reality of the situation for us was that getting the PSA sign more than a couple of days, and a lot of people would be like, Oh yeah, it’s quick. It’s not… And we got to experience what it’s like to have everybody on the phone call seller buyer, councils brokers, and not everybody gets to experience that. And we got it on deal on. So it’s just realizing that you have to really… And I’ve talked about for discipline, your disappointment, because it was disappointing when I kept going back and forth and I was like, Why can’t we just… Agree, that’s hard. And even in due diligence when we had no shows or we had people that bail, it was hard, and so it was really awesome that we’ve been in this space for so long that we had a lot of connections, so that we were able to replace people as needed and we were able to move the puzzle pieces, but it was just tough. And had I had a different level of expectation. It would have been even harder. So when things don’t work out the way you think they will in your head, just don’t get disappointed and figure out what has to be changed in which puzzle pieces have to be moved or flipped in order to make it work.

[0:17:52.5] WS: What is your best source for meeting new investors right now.

[0:17:56.3] AW: It’s so weird. So we were trying to get a commercial loan here, and we became friends with the commercial banker that bank, and he goes to a local reading the way meet face face here. And he came by the property and he was like, Hey, you know, I was in the neighborhood, it’s like… Not really in the neighborhood. Okay. And so he gets out warhead, I’m like, Did you wanna see what we’re doing? He’s like, Of course I do. And so as I was walking back down with him and taking him back to where he’s carves Park, he said, You know, we all have to get to lunch, he’s like, I think I can probably bring you… Investors with a couple hundred thousand. There you go. And… How did we meet him? We went to him because we were buying a little portfolio, single-family homes that fell in our lap, and we needed a commercial loan, so… You don’t know where you’re gonna meet people. Another investor that I’ve met in the past was working at the gun counter in Basra, we noticed that he had on a really nice watch, and I asked her, I’m like, So do you invest? It was like, Are you an investor? And he’s like, Yes, I invest in these things called R-E-I-T-S.

[0:19:02.9] AW: And I was like, Oh, what do you get in 8-10%? And he was like, I wish I’m getting 7-8. I’m like, Have you ever thought about investing in straight real estate? And so it just gave me a chance to talk to him because I just decided that I know you just have an avatar and all of those things, but I don’t ever want to not believe that someone could be an investor… Sure about asking that we… And I text now. And he’s ready to go. Whenever we have a deal. So you just never know who you’re gonna run into. Or are you gonna meet

[0:19:32.3] WS: Love that… Just thinking that way, right? And you can’t judge a book by its cover, right? You just don’t know who these people are, but anyway. That’s just a great thing to think about. Are you making that judgment about people before you’ve even talked to them, So what about any daily habits that you are disciplined about that have helped you achieve success?

[0:19:49.0] AW: So I’m really organized, I try to be organized. My phone is constantly going off with all of these reminders of routines that I need to do, and Jason is constantly trying to help me… You made me this book, I don’t know if you can see it, but it’s called like the Power Five list, and so it’s like at my top five, and I have 20 things on the side over here, and I highlight things so that I know how to prioritize them and it doesn’t really help. What helps a little… But he is really organized and routine-based, and it’s harder for me, and my production team actually let me know last night that they find it really annoying that on the deadline, I’m like, Give me three days and I slam what I could have done in three weeks and the three days, and they’re like, I really hate that about you.

[0:20:37.2] WS: I can relate to that a little bit.

[0:20:38.6] AW: But they know it about me too, so I think they’re starting to bump up timelines so that I fit the actual timeline that they have, but they don’t let me know that there’s an actual timeline anywhere else…

[0:20:48.3] WS: Okay, so your team is figuring out ways to work around that, right. That’s incredible. We at least, you know that that’s a weakness, and it looks like your organizer there was laid out very well, that should be very helpful.

[0:20:59.3] AW: But it looks beautiful.

0:21:00.8 WS: At least Jason can help with that is say, But what about number one thing that’s contributed to your success.

[0:21:06.0] AW: Honestly, it was when our mentor how to send out those two questions, What is something that this person does better than anyone else, and what is something that is… A natural talent for this person, and we had system it out to five people. I sent out to 10 expecting five to respond, and seven people responded back and they all basically said the same thing that I’ll talk to anybody, I will build basically an instant relationship, and half the time I have that person doing something for me by the end of the day…

[0:21:32.9] WS: Wow, I’m kind of scared. Talk to you. Oh no.

[0:21:35.7] AW: It’ll be fine. I’m good, you’ll be fine.

[0:21:39.1] WS: It’s a skill. Just people skills, right? And it’s so much of this business, and that’s why you’re gonna do well, ’cause you’re able to build those relationships and speak to people when most people would not, and just start a conversation also, how do you like to give back?

[0:21:52.7] AW: Honestly, since I’m not real organized and I don’t have a lot of routines, the way that I really focus on giving back is just by being consistent when I do commit to something, so whether that’s being in our American her distill strep, I was the coordinator for several years for my daughter’s elementary school, I was the treasurer for like, I don’t even know, seven years is a two-year term, but it elevated that in and it was just… When you commit to something, be consistent and showing up, because then you provide a solid base for others, they know who they can count on, and it’s really important, and I think it’s an overlooked way of giving back to people just by being that foundation and being consistent and always being there.

[0:22:37.9] WS: Yeah, appreciate you giving back in that way, and a pleasure to have you on the show, pleasure to just really hear about how you and Jason are really building your empire, you all are working together and interesting too. It’s need to confound it, the importance of him being on the Zoom call, even though he can’t participate in his willingness to make that happen as well, just like those little things make such a big difference in your marriage, I mean, just in life, but I mean, especially when you are hustling like you are, like those little things mean so much and being able to stay connected, and I appreciate you bringing that out, but then to just all the things that you all are doing to get this deal done and I get to deal Mani hope it’s motivating to the listener as well, and I hope they’ll also look up the academy presents and just all the educational things that you all are doing, tell them how they can learn more value in those things.

[0:23:28.8] AW: Yeah, so probably the easiest way, kind of all in one is to go to www.AcademyPresents.com, you can join the community there, and everything is there, the podcast, the summit, the workshops, the boot camps, the Zoom link is there. Everything is there. If you wanna go to one place, if you are in any meet-ups, there’s a million of virtual medias, and If you need links, I can help you out because I think it’s a blast to go to those meet-ups and… Of all the things that could have happened with everything going on, my favorite part has been the move to a virtual landscape because it has connected people and it’s really even out the playing field. And when I think about who’s on our team, none of us would be on the team had it not been for that virtual landscape.

[0:24:14.7] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to The Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Life Bridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.lifebridgecapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

[END]